1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for managing JAVA applications executable in a user device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional televisions or conventional DVD players are only capable of playing audio/video data. However, latest digital televisions and blu-ray players are capable of providing an environment for executing applications.
Latest mobile communication terminals are also capable of providing the environment.
The applications executable in user devices such as the digital televisions, blu-ray players and mobile communication terminal is usually created using JAVA language (hereinafter referred to as “JAVA application”) and provided to the user device in a byte code format.
Operations such as a start and an end of the application and an access to system resources are carried out between the application and an operating system on which the application is executed.
An application model defines how the application should be managed and also defines roles of the operating system and the application.
JAVA Specifications such as J2ME (JAVA 2 Platform Micro Edition) and J2SE (JAVA 2 Platform Sun Edition) currently supports various application models. Applet and Xlet are examples of the application model.
Sun Microsystems provides Xlet for executing the JAVA application in an embedded device such as the digital television. While Applet is an embedded application which is executed in a browser, Xlet is an embedded application executed in the embedded device.
Generally, one JAVA application is executed and displayed on a single screen of the user device.
For instance, when another JAVA application is selected for execution while a startup JAVA application is executed and displayed, the startup JAVA application is then halted and the selected JAVA application is executed.
In other words, the JAVA applications executed in the user device are independent of each other. Therefore, it is difficult to guarantee a continuity between the JAVA applications because information between the independent JAVA applications cannot be shared.